Nudism raises lots of questions about body care. It is a healthy way of life in many ways, but it also presents certain concerns that we don't face when clothed. Here you can ask all your questions, and post about the health benefits of nudism / naturism.<P>Only Residents and higher may post here.

This isn't totally related to naturism, but even before I'd really considered why people wear clothes I wondered why we decided to invent shoes. I know Jesus and his disciples wore sandals, and other civilizations wore them. Today we have shoes that do much more than any former form of footwear (say that 5 times fast) ever did, such as provide arch support.

So I guess the question is, God designed our feet in a certain way, presumably for walking, so why do we wear shoes? And I get that it's practical to do so in certain environments, such as machining, where it's also practical to wear clothes; I'm just talking about in general.

The shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow; they were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for the top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like modern socks.

. The Alps can be challenging to feet.

The question is not why shoes, or why clothes; physical practicality and aesthetics / status account for them and gloves and hats and jewellery and tattoos and hairdos. And cetera.

The question is, why do so many of us wear nearly all the time things that we do not need and that do not help our looks or status.

The truth, the stark naked truth, the truth without so much as a loincloth on, should surely be the investigator's sole aim - Basil Chamberlain

Interesting you mention this. I go barefoot as often as I can, even in the winter, doing chores inside and out, and of course every time of the year. The bottoms of my feet are not necessarily 'tough,' but tough enough (and yet don't look it). Naturally, or unnaturally as the case may be, I wear shoes on a regular basis, but less so than I used to (dress shoes, heavy duty work, recreation when needed). I've got so used to barefeet or just my sandals that either feels normal now.

I've especially noticed that my feet get cold in my office (a corner office which is always cold) when I'm wearing dress shoes, like today (it's currently 15 degrees). But at home, when I'm running around barefoot, my feet seem to not stay cold (yes, get cold but don't stay that way, like in shoes in the office). Go figure. This week is supposed to be bitter cold so I'm going to try kicking off the shoes in the office and see what happens. I'll be the barefoot-in-the-winter pastor for a while (no real shock to my peers).

So why wear shoes? I suppose because it's the sociable thing to do, safe at times as you mentioned, and allegedly sanitary (which is a false presumption). Like you, Mav, I'd rather my feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, and nothing more... ditto from the ankles up, except for all the other spiritual armor that I gladly wear.

I think shoes have become the socially expected manner of dress. As you said, Don, at least partly for "sanitation." I too prefer to go barefoot (all over when possible) but I have a condition called Kaven's(?) ankle caused by my high arch and plantar fasciitis, therefore, am relegated to the wear of orthotics to "correct" my condition.

In grandpa's day, if a boy wore shoes to church in the warmer months, it was considered an affront to those who went without.Shoes were so expensive that families would refrain from wearing them until winter, lest they be worn out prematurely.Grandpa's family could afford them, but he would not lord it over his neighbors that way.Going barefoot was the only decent thing to do.The Bible speaks of times harder still when the poorest of the poor had no clothes at all.I imagine they could only huddle together for warmth on a winter night, seeking what warmth they could from a fire and the body next to them.The nakedness of poverty is not the carefree nudity of Eden.

Insightful responses by all. I think where I'm going with this strip is, why do we need arch support in our shoes, for example? My mom has a heel spur in at least one foot and my dad is always talking about wearing shoes lest I get "flat arches." (God did make us so that we could walk around shoeless without getting flat arches, didn't he?)

For what it's worth, I walk around barefoot indoors 9+ months out of the year, but when it gets cold I put on socks and sometimes a pair of Dearfoams. Never been much of a barefooter outdoors but I need to get there.

Maverick wrote:Insightful responses by all. I think where I'm going with this strip is, why do we need arch support in our shoes, for example? My mom has a heel spur in at least one foot and my dad is always talking about wearing shoes lest I get "flat arches." (God did make us so that we could walk around shoeless without getting flat arches, didn't he?)

For what it's worth, I walk around barefoot indoors 9+ months out of the year, but when it gets cold I put on socks and sometimes a pair of Dearfoams. Never been much of a barefooter outdoors but I need to get there.

I was born with flat feet and I can walk for miles barefoot outdoors.As a boy, my feet grew a natural leather on the soles that protected me from thorns, pine cones and sun-baked earth.I can only assume that most folks could do the same if they'd put sufficient time in walking barefoot.I don't do well in shoes, in fact, if shoes have much of an arch, it is extremely painful and I have to take them off or at least remove the arch support.I have a spur on the inside of my ankles and can no longer wear high top shoes. Might get surgery, but there's no money for that now.

I don't like cold wet ground, but can put up with it if I have to, but it is better to wear moccasins or sandals in those conditions to avoid risk of hookworm.Hookworm isn't as likely to spread when the ground is hot and dry, (from May through early October, sometimes late October).

Though I've always had high arches I too wonder weather footwear can have an impact upon changes in our feet, thus causing the expense to purchase "proper" designs to accommodate our changing feet, to keep the manufacturers in business.

Like using crutches, wearing "foot coffins" (and by that term you can guess where my sympathies stand), while helping those who cannot "help themselves," tend to weaken muscles we should be exercising. I'm not sure how I feel about the "earthing" theory, but I too have noticed benefits from going barefoot regularly if not always. Just yesterday I went out barefoot for a while and immediately felt happier and stronger. (The temperature was in the sixties. ) But my feet were in pretty good shape to begin with. All I had to do was to toughen my soles to make going barefoot more joyous and comfortable than wearing shoes.

Pollack has also clearly demonstrated there are three natural energies that result in separation of charges that create flow:

1. Sunlight charges up your blood vessels, which increases the flow of blood. When the sun's rays penetrate your skin, it causes a massive increase of nitric oxide that acts as a vasodilator. As much as 60 percent of your blood can be shunted to the surface of your skin through the action of nitric oxide. This helps absorb solar radiation, which then causes the water in your blood to capture the energy and become structured.

This is a key component for a healthy heart. The ideal is to be exposed to the sun while grounding, meaning walking barefoot. This forms a biological circuit that makes it work even better.

2. Negative ions from the Earth, also known as earthing or grounding. This also charges up your blood vessels, creates a separation of charges, creates more positive ions and allows the blood to flow upward, against gravity.

3. The field effect or touch from another living being, such as laying on of hands.

As noted by Cowan, "The best thing is to be, more or less, with shorts or naked on the beach, with the saltwater, which acts as an electrical conductor, holding hands with somebody you love. That's how you structure the water." Sun exposure, grounding, and skin-to-skin contact are three prevention strategies that, ideally, everyone should be doing. It doesn't get a whole lot easier or less expensive than that.

Jim wrote:Sun, earth, and human touch all sound good to me. But the negative ion and field effect things sure seem like pseudoscience.

Yes, the benefits of sunlight on skin, the benefit of walking barefoot on a pleasant day, and holding hands with a loved one are obvious, .Sun on skin leads to vitamin D production, the vasodilation of bare skin as the sun shines on it is also good for circulation, and human touch is very healing emotionally.But none of this is because of some bizarre altered water molecule!Distilled water is a very, very poor conductor. It is the electrolytes in the water that conduct electricity.Granted if enough charge is passed through water, you can create a few hydronium and hydroxide ions but those ions are NO LONGER WATER and I sure don't want to be swimming in the water when that kind of voltage is hitting the water.